Your Regular Update

[calithena]

The first issue is coming along well. I'm about 4 pages in and there's plenty more to go, I think we're up in the double digits already in terms of stuff submitted with more to come. Here are some more things I think would be cool:

- A half-page hex wilderness map with a good random encounter table and good short-short descriptions of some of the cool things on it.

(e.g. Hex 2217: Ilana the Bald (a 9th level thief) rules this village and has organized its doughty yeomen (treat as Lawful bandits) into something of an irregular band of resistance against the Baron of the Moors. Ververix, the golden dragon of mount Cloudscraper (Hex 1715), has fallen in love with Ilana, and as his insanity progresses he may be tempted to act on this strange infatuation.)


- A megadungeons 101 article. (I've already solicited this from a well-known internet megadungeoneer, we'll see if he accepts or not.)


- Testimonies about Blackmoor and/or interviews with DA and the original players (this will go in issue 2).


I think I can do a good job on a Kingdom Creation 101 article sooner or later but I might not get it written for this issue.


Also, if you're just bored or want to make a small contribution, there's never too many new monsters and magic items in a production like this, so send 'em along!


Feel free to make suggestions for articles you'd like to see here as well.

[calithena]

Here's an easy way to get your name in lights: submit spells, magic items, and monsters! We need plenty.

[coffee]

Do you need any behind the scenes help? Specifically, I'm thinking about proofreading, copy editing, that sort of thing. I was a proofreader professionally for two years, and I'd like to help out if I can.

[Zulgyan]

are there any copyright issues in converting spells from other games to OD&D?

[James Maliszewski]

calithena said:

- A half-page hex wilderness map with a good random encounter table and good short-short descriptions of some of the cool things on it.

I would love to do this, but ... I have two questions.

1. In what format should the hex map be submitted? Hand-drawn probably won't work as well for a wilderness map as it will for a dungeon map.

2. I've already submitted something and I don't want to hog up too much space in the first issue. ;D

[calithena]

Hi Zulg -

One thing that may cause some controversy but will definitely help us sleep better at night is that I'm going to do my best to ruthlessly expunge all names that are specifiic to other properties (except where used by permission, of course).

Don't rip off anything from anyone. But if something inspires you to create something somewhat similar with your own take on it, then go ahead and do that. But we don't need to 'convert' things, just write them the way you'd use them in your game (whatever rules you use to run it) and I'll tweak for the magazine format.

James, I can email you some armory hex paper to draw your map on if you want. I have some of the big old wilderlands brown hex paper too but that costs.

There are some great hex mapping programs on line, if you go that way make sure to use one that's freeware or otherwise allows people to print maps using it for sale.

If you do that project it will probably be shunted to issue 2 but, well, issue 2 is going to need some good stuff too.

I greatly appreciate the half-dozen offers of editorial help I've gotten and I will be taking some of you up on things, but basically I'm going for a DIY/fanzine aesthetic, and I've done some editing type work semi-pro myself, so I'll be calling on folks more in a consulting role for that. What I really need is content. I'm especially interested in your own individual take on how you do things. Make things up! Send notes from your own campaigns, maps, cool character descriptions, play transcripts, dungeons, whatever - it's all good.

If you know people under 18 who can contribute content they've made up, that stuff is gold, and I'll be delighted to take any of it I possibly can.

[Melan]

You can make excellent hex maps with AutoREALM + MSPaint with a little work:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v198/Melan/Batrakasz-P.jpg
The big challenge is getting the hex numbers on the sheet; I can send a blank template if people need one.

[James Maliszewski]

melan said:

You can make excellent hex maps with AutoREALM + MSPaint with a little work:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v198/Melan/Batrakasz-P.jpg
The big challenge is getting the hex numbers on the sheet; I can send a blank template if people need one.

That's a lovely map! Is this program something that's freely available and whose output we could freely distribute?

[Zulgyan]

In need to learn how to do that in AutoRealm. That WL style.

I could only manage to do something like this:

img267.imageshack.us/my.php?image=barbarianisleszp3.gif

[jrients]

zulgyan said:

In need to learn how to do that in AutoRealm. That WL style.

I could only manage to do something like this:

img267.imageshack.us/my.php?image=barbarianisleszp3.gif

There's nothing wrong with that map. Is there room for improvement? Sure. But it works and its a heck of a lot better than I could do.

[calithena]

Speaking of maps, I'm hoping that this



will go into B&W OK, because I think I'm going to use it in my article to explain how I go about designing a campaign.

[calithena]

Huh. Even cropped, that looks a little small. I could trace the names in black pen and re-scan it, but maybe that's too much work.

Must consider...

[coffee]

It's a nice map. I always want to do maps like that, but I get impatient and the first few carefully drawn symbols are followed up by hastily scrawled squiggles (which are then color coded because I can no longer tell which is which...)

[makofan]

I'm about one-third done my submission

[robertthebald]

calithena said:

- Testimonies about Blackmoor and/or interviews with DA and the original players (this will go in issue 2).

Would there be a maximum or minimum length to the interviews? Would you be editing the interviews, or accepting them as is?
Would this just be for one issue, or an ongoing article through the editions?
I might be able to help with this.

[Zulgyan]

Copyright question:

Is there a problem with naming a spell: "The Tentacles of Demogorgon"?

Is Demogorgon a name that may not be used?

[makofan]

Demogorgon is common property, see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon

[calithena]

The name Demogorgon is kosher, it's been used in other games, it's in Milton, early Christian writings, etc. etc. I assume that the one in your spell is not the two-headed guy, however, and should not be described as such.

Robert, thanks for checking in! We'd definitely give several pages over to DA and his old players. I guess the two angles we're most interested in are:

1) The early days - what the first few games were like, things they did, the rules they played with, how DA hit on certain ideas in relation to events that happened in his campaign - anecdotes, examples, history.

2) The ongoing world - I gather the world still runs in some form, or DA picks it up every so often? Long-term campaigns are a major subject of interest, so we'd like to hear more about that.

All content related to DA and the original Blackmoor campaign would be in one issue, probably #2, certainly #3 if not.

Let me know if you have more questions and if there's anything I can do to help make this happen!

[Melan]

Well, I sent my contribution, and so should you. Yes, you there.

[makofan]

artwork and map sent

[calithena]

We now have four really cool adventures in the issue. Ready for more for issue 2!

If there's any DMs challenge, campaign development, actual play stuff, that's what we're thinnest on for issue 1. We have great rules mods and adventures and some pretty kickin' magic items. We could take a couple of them spells Zulg is working on though.

All in all this is going to rock. Things are moving along very well.

[Zulgyan]

I'm breaking my head in making the spells. Trying to be original, trying not to come up with anything already published (35+ years of D&D on my BACK!), and trying to stay within the OD&D philosophy!

This is harder of what I thought!

8 spells so far.

[calithena]

A week and a day left until the submission deadline. After that, keep submitting, but it will have to go into issue 2!

The first issue is about half done. We have a great cover and 15 pages of rock-solid content, including dungeons by jamesm and melan, monsters and a character class by yours truly, some character personalization stuff by kesher, a great alternate magic article by jreints, awesome art by reyes, poag, zulg, and others, and, well, I think you're all going to love it. If you don't see your submission on that list, don't sweat it, there's more going in!

[Melan]

How many pages so far?

[Zulgyan]

Only 1 spell left! and I reach my objective!!

Keep thinking... need inspiration...

*goes back to books*

[calithena]

Keep going on those spells, Zulg!

Target for issue 1 is 32 pages. It might be more; it won't be less.